Israeli Native Title

Israelis, with the support of the U.S. and other western nations including Britain and Australia, claim that the ancestors of the Jews were the first to inhabit the plains of Palestine, granting them native title rights to the land.

Strange then, that Iraq's similar indigenous native title claim to Kuwait was opposed by the west in the Gulf War.

Strange that claims by Native Americans based on the same principle have been consistently denied, apart from a few token reservations and lands fragmented by the Dawes Act (See Native Title Privatisation).

Strange that the same claim by Australian Aborigines is also denied, except for native title lands granted in extremely remote areas and deserts, resulting in isolation and poverty for the Indigenous people attempting to live in such places. Native title in Australia has been extinguished anywhere that land has been sold or set aside for some purpose since European colonisation. But this rule doesn't apply to Israel, for some reason.

This is a pattern that exists across the globe, including peoples such as:

• the Assyrians
• the Argentianian Kolla
• the European Sami
• the Maori
• Taiwan's first nations
• Canadian first nations
• Amazon Natives
• and even Scottish Crofters still under feudal oppression.

So what makes Israel so special? Why are they above the same discrimination the rest of us face when it comes to native title?

Israel has been able to claim native title with no clear proof of first occupancy, and in fact a lot of evidence to the contrary. Most historians (and indeed, those who wrote the Bible), agree that the Canaanites were the first peoples of Palestine. My understanding from the King James version of the Old Testament is that this land was forcibly annexed by the Israelis, who invaded Canaan and massacred the indigenous peoples there, a few thousand years B.C. The Israelites were in fact Semitic tribes from Mesopotamia, and so if they were to claim their true ancestral lands, they would have to challenge the legitimate claim of the Assyrians to an area spanning what is now called Turkey and Iraq.

It is not my place to question whether or not Israel's claim is legitimate. But I do feel it would be reasonable (not anti-semetic!) to ask why no other indigenous peoples on the planet are granted the same consideration as Jewish indigneous peoples. Is it guilt about the Holocaust? Well, we have had holocausts of our own. The only difference is that our holocausts are consistently denied in western history - yet another double standard.

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds